


Cotton Candy Dreams

by ohthelinsanity



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Carnival AU, F/M, They are little itty bitty babies!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-20
Updated: 2014-05-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 19:54:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1660511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohthelinsanity/pseuds/ohthelinsanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Her hair is so yellow and bright, he wonders if touching it would give him a sunburn</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cotton Candy Dreams

She is the prettiest thing he has ever seen, and he’s seen a lot of pretty things in the world: ruddy sunsets, garden flowers, his mama’s smile. Her hair gobbles up sunlight and he wants to know if touching it would give him a sunburn. She is alone, like him, her pale blue eyes darting back and forth not necessarily scared, but apprehensive, and he knows the feeling all too well. Her hands are twisting knots in the hem of her peach tank top when he walks up to her shyly, cotton candy in his hands.

“H-hey,” he stutters out and he has to take a few breaths to brave himself to look in her eyes. “I have some cotton candy, d’you want to share?”

She cocks her head to the side and blinks a few times, looking him up and down; he’s significantly taller than her. He doesn’t think she’s going to answer him and his throat gets all tight and achy but she eventually reaches out and paws at one end of the sack of cotton candy. “Can I have the blue?”

He nods so fervently he’s surprised his head doesn’t roll off. Her laugh sounds like the wind chimes on his porch and he hands her the blue, leaving the pink for him. She takes a big bite right off the bat, eyes widening in delight and he notices the pale blue of the cotton matches her eyes.

“You match yours too,” she tells him and he’s confused because his eyes are green not pink but then she’s standing on the tips of her toes and pinching at his face. “Your cheeks are pink.”

Warmth rushes to his face and for a moment he thinks he might be right about her giving him that sunburn, but he finds he doesn’t mind at all. “I’m Bertolt.”

She repeats his name back a few times, trying to say it right. “I’m Annie,” she says, and she slips her sticky hand in his.

Annie drags him to the Ferris wheel. Bertolt’s scared of heights but he doesn’t want to admit it; luckily he doesn’t have to, his face tells all. “It’s okay,” she tells him, seven years old and unafraid of anything, “They’re not that scary. And I’ll hold your hand the whole time!”

He knows his hand is clammy and sweaty and probably not that nice to hold when it’s so hot out, but his heart swells when she squeezes his fingers in a promise. “I’ll go,” he whispers, his voice barely heard above the sounds of carnival rides and children screaming. But Annie hears it and her smile speaks louder than anything he could have ever spoken.

She proves to be right when they’re sitting on the top of the Ferris wheel, finishing their cotton candy and watching the sunset off the boardwalk. It’s not scary at all. Bertolt feels like a bird, light like a feather. The sky is void of clouds, backdrop nothing but a deep orange, so Annie holds her last bits of cotton candy up, like she can tape them to the sky. “Sometimes the clouds are this color at night. Ever notice?”

Bertolt nods. “It’s pretty,” he notes, but mentally decides it’s still not as pretty as Annie.

They don’t say much at all, but it’s nice. Annie doesn’t seem to mind that he doesn’t talk much because she’s still holding his hand and squeezing his fingers from time to time. When the Ferris wheel comes down she lets go to get out, and Bertolt is more disappointed than he thought he would be. But his cheeks blush cotton candy pink when she slips her hand back in his and pulls them away from the crowd to the edge of the boardwalk.

“I have to go,” she whispers and squeezes his fingers again; he remembers to squeeze back, and she smiles as he does so.

He stares at her hair for a moment, bright and sunny even though it’s dark now—there are blue strips of cotton candy sticking to her hair like clouds and he reaches over to pick them out. She giggles when he shows her what he was doing and he decides he does not want this day to end.

“Me too,” he admits, and his heart deflates like the tents the vendors are pulling down.

“Thanks for sharing your candy,” she nods to where he’s still got a bit more in his bag. He holds it out to her, offering, but she shakes her head. “No, you finish it.”

What she does next surprises him: Annie steps on the tips of her toes and presses a kiss to his cheek, chaste and sticky, and this time he’s positive she leaves a sunburn when his entire body floods with warmth.

She barely squeaks out a “Bye, Bertolt,” before she’s running down the pier.

He isn't sure where it comes from but his voice is loud and crisp, like biting into an autumn grown apple, for the first time in his life when he calls her name. “Bye, Annie!”

She turns around and flashes him one last wave before she’s gone.

He doesn’t dream of her that night, but she’s the first thing he thinks of when he wakes up. The sunlight streams through his window and bleeds his curtain bright yellow.

He checks his skin for more sunburn.

**Author's Note:**

> based off tumblr user leonhardta's cute cute cute bertannie headcanon and I couldn't resist I HAD TO there needs to be more bertannie in the world.
> 
> http://leonhardta.tumblr.com/post/86117345917/a-beruani-summer-au-based-on-flightless-bird


End file.
